Bent County register., 1887-08-20
THE DAYS" OF MOSES.
Relation Between
5otonoo and
Revelations.

| Otner Oh MS SOle anu interesting leC-
lures las evening, being . continue
ton of his "Science and Religion
series. He chose for his text the
first verse of the first chapter of Gen.
esis. ain the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth" There,
said the reverend gentlemen. we have
the only Bible statement of the time
of the creation of the world, "In the
beginning" or as in the Hebrew, "In
a beginning" Indefinite enough,
surely.
Science can never conflict with
the Bible as to the time of the crea-
ton of the earth, for the Bible as
tells nothing about 1t.
My subject is the "days," spoken
of in the first chapter of Genesis. In
early times difficulty was found in
interpreting the word "day" as used
here. Josephus and Philo regarded
these "days" as indefinite Periods
so Origen. Augustine confessed it
"very difficult to explain what sort
of days these were."
Some have claimed that they were
ordinary days,-this agrees with the
wording of the narrative. but not with
the facts of science,-this interpreta-
ton Is now almost universally re.
jected.
Those that make "dsy" long Pc
riod, interpret in accordance with the
facts of science, but the wording of
the narrative indicates that the writer
understood "day" in its ordinary use,
and the ordinary day, is that indicat-
ed by Moses at the Institution of the
seventh day rest-"six days did God
work." says Moses.
A third method of interpreting
''day" is that the symbolieal day, in
the mind of the writer, was under
stood as ordinary day, but in the d.
vine mind it stood for long period.
The creation scenes were revealed TO
the writer in tableaux.
Ea III tableaux appeared to the writer
in duration day, and so he wrote.
But the human language of the rev.
elations backward, must be interpret
ed as to its significance in the divine
mind, as is the human language in
prophecy of the future, viz: By the
event.
God, in relation of the future, uses
human years, days, weeks, for the
representation of much longer pc
riods than these words usually repre-
sent-future national history inter
preting for us. So the "days" of
Gennsis interpreted by the "eyents''
the facts of science-we see that
the human symbol, "Day," stood in
the Divine mind for an indefinitely
long period, although the tableaux
of each impressed the seer as an Or
dinary day.
The first, second and fourth days
could leave no traces in the rocks.
The creation of light, armament, sun,
moon and stars. We can only find
traces in the rocks of the creation of
the third, fifth and sixth days-three
days work.
The geologic scale to-day divides
itself naturally into three great divis-
ions-just Moses ststement-the sec.
ondary, primary, tertiary periods.
And the contents of these three geo
logic periods, and their order of sue
cession agree precisely with Genesis:
Primary, vegetation, the coal period;
secondary. reptiles and birds; ter
tiary, mammals, man. So wonderful
Is the accordance that our great
American geologist, Professor Dana
of Yale, says: "The Bible statement
accords with the statements of geoi-
ogy, and therefore is true. And be.
ing true mast also be divinely in
spired, for no unaided human mind
could at that time attain this height
of knowlcdge."-"Denver Republi-
can"